I apologize for my delay in responding. This seems to be one of those boards that I always struggle with on thread subscriptions. stingray1300, I've read most of the chatter about our products on hundreds of different forums and all the common narratives. If there was a plan to cut costs and compromise quality, while riding on the coattails of the brand's equity, that strategy (and the brand) would've died out or been sold off several years ago. The fact is, a brand-new, state-of-the-art production facility was built from the ground-up to make product quality and consistency even better and it has done exactly that. I sat on our monthly global call this morning and listened to our plant engineers talking about the incredible lengths they are now going to, in order to fine-tune the production process even more, to make the smallest of improvements in quality. They've been working at this technology for several decades, so the they've pretty much turned over all the stones and are now looking under some pretty small pebbles.
What's been interesting for me in reading these conversations are the ones where people switched away from our products several years ago and now find themselves switching brands again, because they are encountering the same issues. Sometimes they return to us, while other times, they are convinced there's not a manufacturer left on the planet who makes a battery worth buying.
It's interesting that you've had one of our batteries in your 2013 F-150 since 2014. What was it about the OEM battery that made you switch after just a year of use? I happen to have a 2013 Flex (it's my wife's driver) and I have the same battery nanny system shutting my radio off every time I'm cleaning it in my driveway. I find it frustrating as well, especially when I measure the voltage at 12.3 volts and know it's not a big deal to discharge it a little longer, as long as I put it on a charger afterwards.
That is the nature of new vehicles and I'll at least give credit to the manufacturers for recognizing the tremendous electrical demands they now place on their batteries and charging systems. They know if a battery gets deeply-discharged, the alternator may not fully-recharge it, the customer will get into a cycle of dead batteries and jump-starts and probably take it in under warranty (new BMWs have to have replacement batteries "registered" with their charging systems). Manufacturers would much rather avoid that type of warranty service, by preventing the battery from getting deeply-discharged in the first place and shutting the vehicle down early. My '92 Silverado on the other hand is more than willing to discharge my YellowTop well below 10 volts anytime I'd like.
So your YellowTop should be fully-charged at about 13.0-13.2 volts. Usually when our battery or any other shows a reading of 13.4 volts or higher, it's a surface charge and not the fully-charged state. 13.2 volts fully-charged is really on the higher end for a 12-volt battery. Our RedTops are actually fully-charged at about 12.6-12.8 volts and most flooded batteries are considered 100% at 12.6 volts.
I don't know who you spoke with at 4WP Truck Fest, but it was not an employee of our company or one of our representatives, as we did not have a presence there (we do have three big rigs that do set up at events around the country). 4Wheel Parts is one of our retail partners, so it is possible you spoke to one of their retail associates. Just to be clear, there are no computers inside our batteries and unfortunately, that is not the worst story I've heard attributed to our products. When a product has tens of thousands of retailers, it's always going to be a challenge to get sales associates trained on your technology, especially when it's one of hundreds or even thousands of SKUs in their system.
To put your mind at ease regarding voltage, I would tell you that your battery should really only come into use when you are starting your truck or when you run accessories with the engine off and Ford will make sure you don't overdo the key-off use. Once it is started, the alternator should be able to supply enough current to power all the electrical components and get the battery topped back off. As I mentioned before, the fully-charged voltage range of our batteries can vary between about 12.6-13.2 volts. That could get even broader if you throw other brands and manufacturers into the mix, as well as older batteries that may not hold voltage like they did when new. Ford doesn't know what battery you are going to run, how old it will be, how hot or cold your climate will be or what abuse you might put it through, so they plan accordingly and conservatively, making sure their systems can provide the electricity needed to run the vehicle and keep the battery maintained. We suggest typical alternator output should be in the range of about 13.7-14.7 volts, which should be plenty to keep any of our batteries in good shape. If someone's alternator was only producing 13.0 volts, it may never fully-charge their battery, which could lead to problems if the battery ever got fully-discharged. Alternators are also regulated, so they won't overcharge your battery, if they are operating properly. The YellowTop in the Silverado I mentioned kept starting the 350 until we discharged the battery below 8 volts, so you should have plenty of room to spare with your Ecoboost.
As WSS indicated, we have had batteries fail from manufacturing defects, as has every other manufacturer on the planet. The percentage of failures from manufacturing defects are very low by industry standards and our parent company manufactures a good percentage of the batteries in this country and we never stop testing the others, so we know where we stand. Many of the “bad” batteries returned to us now end up getting recharged and installed in cars racing in the
ChumpCar World Series, because they were “discharge-only” warranty returns. Sometimes the retailers didn't know any better, other times, an angry customer didn't want to wait around for their battery to charge back up. Regardless of how they get there, the ChumpCar guys are pretty happy about it and we're glad we're not recycling a bunch of batteries that still have plenty of life left in them. We're not the only brand that deals with that issue either. Read the warranty language on some other popular brands and you'll see exclusions for batteries discharged below a minimum voltage level.
That's probably too much battery information for some folks, so I'll stop now.
Jim McIlvaine
eCare Manager, OPTIMA Batteries
www.instagram.com/optimabatteries
